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Pauline Hanson rails against 'reverse racism' as Senate debates free speech – politics live
Pauline Hanson rails against 'reverse racism' as Senate debates free speech – politics live
(35 minutes later)
1.56am GMT
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*Choir sings, angels descend*
Senate amends backpacker tax to 10.5%
Sunlight spotlights Tony Abbott during PM's infrastructure statement @gabriellechan @GuardianAus @murpharoo #spooky pic.twitter.com/eOzZz4I1n9
The senate votes to amend the backpacker tax to 10.5% as per Lambie amendment with support of Labor, Greens, One Nation, Leyonhjelm.
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Finance minister Mathias Cormann said the backpacker tax proposal was designed to provide certainty. He describes the ruling which found working holiday makers were non residents for tax purposes.
Culleton and Burston in discussions w Cash and Cormann https://t.co/dzntFG5NOO
He says if the bills don’t pass, backpackers face a 32.5% tax rate.
2.27am GMT
Cormann says backpackers in Australia will still be better off given the wage rates and the tax rates at 19%.
02:27
I didn’t come to Australia as a result of the tax rates, says Cormann.
The Senate is now voting on the Jacqui Lambie amendment for a 10.5% rate.
I came because it was a beautiful country.
1.43am GMT
01:43
There is a question over where One Nation will go on the backpacker tax.
We know Labor and the Greens are supporting Jacqui Lambie’s amendment to put the backpacker tax at 10.5%.
We know Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon are supporting the 19% rate with Xenophon wanting the amendments.
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The backpackers debate has started in the Senate.
Jacqui Lambie rips into National senator John Williams. She resents the implication that he is suggesting she is putting Australians out of work by wanting a lower tax rate.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, says the government has the reverse Midas touch at the moment. The backpacker tax is a mess.
If we had every youth in Tasmania working, we would still not have enough to pick our fruit.
The Greens have never supported any change to the tax.
You should be congratulating me ... helping to sell your welfare card.
Di Natale recounts the history of uncertainty since the 32.5% tax was announced in the 2015 budget.
Don’t you dare criticise me with your crap because I am not taking it.
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Coalition establishes infrastructure financing unit in his department
Senator Lambie is moving her amendments to change to 10.5%. Senator John Williams gets up to ask a question regarding unemployment in Tasmania.
Paul Karp
Penny Wong is ripping into the government. She smells a rat. She accuses them of filibustering.
Malcolm Turnbull has announced he is establishing an “infrastructure financing unit” in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
She says Labor agreed to bring on the bills and recommit the vote to be helpful and now they are stalling.
The unit will “develop the funding and financing solutions for landmark projects through the use of public-private partnerships, measured use of the balance sheet and value capture”, he said.
What a joke. Can’t you run the parliament? Let’s get on and vote.
Turnbull used his speech to call for the Senate to pass the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Cormann:
He also attacked Labor over the national broadband network, saying the project was “failing” when the Coalition inherited it in 2013.
That was an unnecessary contribution.
But with new management, a new plan, it is now meeting and beating its targets, and it is on track to be complete by 2020.
Bill Shorten is now on his feet responding, calling Turnbull’s handling of the NBN “biggest infrastructure stuff-up in Australian Government’s history”. He said the cost of the NBN has doubled under the Coalition.
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Malcolm Turnbull on infrastructure process:
If you get a friend request from George, do not open it.
My government is changing infrastructure in Australia, the way we plan it, the way we fund it, and the way we partner to build it. Such reform is the only way to deliver the infrastructure that will best serve the modern Australian economy,and will enable us to leave our children and grandchildren the infrastructure they will need to succeed in this, the 21st Century. But as Infrastructure Australia does make clear, many of the reforms relate to responsibilities of state, territory and local governments. So we will continue working with our State and Territory colleagues, including at COAG, about how we can work together to deliver real change.
Please be aware that if something sounds to good to be true, it almost certainly is.
Bill Shorten is replying to the prime minister’s infrastructure statement.
2.12am GMT
He says public transport is not a hobby to Labor, it is embedded in the party’s policy. He describes the Abbott-Turnbull government’s record on infrastructure as dismal.
02:12
We don’t look at a train carriage and see a selfie studio. We know that public transport is about quality of life, particularly for Australians who live and work in our growing suburbs. It is about making it easier for people to get to work quicker and get home sooner, and I want to make this point very clear. Charging Australians more to drive their car without investing in public transport as an alternative inevitably means punishing those who can least afford it. Any proposal to change the funding arrangements for Australian roads should be based on equity, and investing in public transport in the outer suburbs.
Jacqui Lambie is cranky that Barnaby Joyce and the government have told people that she and Labor are voting against the backpacker tax bill. (She is trying to change the rate.)
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Nationals senator Barry O’Sullivan is in the chair. He wants her to withdraw.
01:21
I will withdraw ‘Barnaby’s porkies’ to keep the piece.
The Senate is has voted on the change of business that allows the backpacker bills to be presented, as reported earlier.
She says Barnaby is obsessed with her, blaming her for all the problems in the bush.
Saying Jacqui Lambie, Jacqui Lambie, Jacqui Lambie. He said Jacqui Lambie seven times. I mean, get a life.
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The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says the whole committee process embarked on has caused the delay.
She says farmers want it fixed and says the world is watching.
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Paul Karp
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson takes issue with the government’s assertion that the default tax rate is 32.5%.
Malcolm Turnbull is on his feet in the House of Representatives, giving an update about the government’s infrastructure achievements ($80bn of spending, funding for 14 of the 15 projects on Infrastructure Australia’s priority list). He’s also giving the government’s response to Infrastructure Australia’s 15-year plan.
Whish-Wilson has been on top of the backpacker stuff from the start and did a lot of work in the committees to pin down the tax office on whether backpackers would be treated as residents or non residents.
The most interesting news out of the response is that the federal government will commission a study into a road user charge for light vehicles as part of a “10 to 15-year journey” towards a possible new tax on commuters to replace petrol excise.
He describes the government’s assertion as “spin and BS”.
The urban infrastructure minister, Paul Fletcher, announced the study on Thursday.
He wants to know what work the tax office has done to determine that the majority of backpackers will be treated as non-residents. Show me the numbers.
Infrastructure Australia had asked the government to “commit to the full implementation” of road user charging in the next 10 years.
Minister Cormann says the tax commissioner has been very clear on the ruling. No figures though.
The government noted the recommendation but said it was “premature” to express any views about the merits of a commuter charge.
That didn’t stop Turnbull saying the point of the study was to come up with a “fairer and more sustainable” way to fund infrastructure. Watch this space.
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Just so you get the full context.
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"Australia suffers from reverse rascism" Pauline Hanson speaks on repeal of 18c @gabriellechan @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/LPL7Etr1jJ
12.33am GMT
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Pauline Hanson: “I’ve had it up to here with my tolerance”
Pauline Hanson says she is not racist then adds she has "HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH MY TOLERANCE" #auspol pic.twitter.com/AGuTVPgpFh
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*Choir sings, angels descend*
Sunlight spotlights Tony Abbott during PM's infrastructure statement @gabriellechan @GuardianAus @murpharoo #spooky pic.twitter.com/eOzZz4I1n9
